Penn State's cleanup routine might come in handy against Illini

Thursday

Sep 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMSep 27, 2007 at 4:27 PM

The workload increased for Penn State linebacker Dan Connor and his teammates this fall after coach Joe Paterno decided his Nittany Lions needed some extra disciplinary action. After home games, the Nittany Lions get a 7:30 a.m. wakeup call, arrive at Beaver Stadium before 8 and clean eight student sections in the south end zone.

John Supinie

The workload increased for Penn State linebacker Dan Connor and his teammates this fall after coach Joe Paterno decided his Nittany Lions needed some extra disciplinary action.

After home games, the Nittany Lions get a 7:30 a.m. wakeup call, arrive at Beaver Stadium before 8 and clean eight student sections in the south end zone. The 90 minutes of work after the seven home dates are Paterno's response to a handful of players who were involved in an off-campus fight last spring.

"That's how coach Paterno does business,'' Connor said. "You do what he says, keep your mouth shut and go to work. That's the Penn State mentality. You get up and go to work. It's tough to wake up at 7:30 after a game. You're beat up. It's tough, but you go out and do it.''

If Sunday mornings serve as a good example, the Nittany Lions have experience at cleaning up a mess. That might come in handy, when No. 21 Penn State (3-1 overall, 0-1 in the Big Ten Conference) plays at Illinois (3-1, 1-0) Saturday (11 a.m., Big Ten Network).

Penn State's offense was a mess in a 14-9 loss at Michigan Saturday. Penn State had 14 first downs and no touchdowns against a team that allowed 34 points in a loss to Appalachian State and 39 in another loss the following week to Oregon. With a running game ranked ninth in the Big Ten and a quarterback who has five touchdown passes and seven interceptions in Big Ten play as a starter, this offense might be harder to clean up than day-old nacho cheese on a bleacher.

The loss to Michigan dropped Penn State 11 spots in the top 25. One Pennsylvania newspaper already hinted the Nittany Lions reached a crisis on offense. Penn State's playcalling was labeled as conservative, despite obvious talent at receiver.

"Well, I think you'd like to have had about six more points (against Michigan), yeah,'' Paterno said. "But I think overall, (we're) about what I thought we'd be. Sure, you can always want to be better. I'm satisfied.

"I think we'll get better and do better, but I think considering some of the injuries we've had on the offensive line, everything else, I think we've done well.''

Penn State senior quarterback Anthony Morelli was 15-for-31 for 169 yards against Michigan. In four of the nine Big Ten games Morelli started in his career, he failed to lead the Nittany Lions on a touchdown drive. Michigan converted Morelli's fumble on the Penn State 14-yard line into the game's first touchdown.

"I think Anthony did well enough," Paterno said. "I think the one big mistake he made, obviously, was when he fumbled the ball in our territory. But I think overall he did a solid job.''

First-string running back Austin Scott also lost a fumble against Michigan and has three fumbles in the last two games. Star wide receiver Derrick Williams has 14 catches for only 87 yards and three rushes for six yards while not scoring a touchdown.

"There's no way we can lose confidence,'' Williams said. "Any team that loses confidence in a scheme or what you do, that's an unsuccessful team. Monday, we went in there and set our goals. They're very reachable.

"We still want to win the Big Ten and go to a big BCS bowl. That's our goals. We still believe in everything we do.''

Last season, Illinois dropped a 26-12 decision at Penn State, even though the Nittany Lions had just 10 first downs, 40 yards rushing and 184 total yards. Penn State likely will have to rely on a rushing defense ranked No. 6 nationally by allowing 54.8 yards per game.

As for the punishment involving his team, the 80-year-old Paterno wanted to save some of Penn State's reputation.

"I think that we need to prove to people that we're not a bunch of hoodlums,'' he said last spring.

There's still the mess with the Penn State offense.

John Supinie can be reached at Johnsupinie@aol.com. For more Illini coverage, read Illini Talk blog at www.sj-r.com and www.pjstar.com .